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A Philological Approach to Buddhism

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A Philological Approach to Buddhism THE BUDDHIST FORUM, VOLUME V A PHILOLOGICAL APPROACH TO BUDDHISM The Bukkyō Dendō Kyōkai Lectures 1994 K.R. Norman THE INSTITUTE OF BUDDHIST STUDIES, TRING, UK THE INSTITUTE OF BUDDHIST STUDIES, BERKELEY, USA 2012 First published by the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London), 1997 © Online copyright 2012 belongs to: The Institute of Buddhist Studies, Tring, UK & The Institute of Buddhist Studies, Berkeley, USA British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data ISBN 0-7286-0276-8 ISSN 0959-0595 CONTENTS The online pagination 2012 corresponds to the hard copy pagination 1997 Foreword.........................................................................................................................................vii Abbreviations...................................................................................................................................ix Bibliography....................................................................................................................................xi I Buddhism and Philology............................................................................................................1 II Buddhism and its Origins.........................................................................................................21 III Buddhism and Oral Tradition.................................................................................................41 IV Buddhism and Regional Dialects............................................................................................59 V Buddhism and Writing.............................................................................................................77 VI Buddhism and Sanskritisation................................................................................................95 VII Buddhism and Aśoka.............................................................................................................113 VIII Buddhism and Canonicity..................................................................................................131 IX Buddhism and the Commentarial Tradition.........................................................................149 X Buddhism and Philology.......................................................................................................167 Word Index...................................................................................................................................185 ABBREVIATIONS AMg Ardha-Māgadhī AO Acta Orientalia B.C.E. Before Common Era BHS Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit BHSD Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Dictionary BHSG Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Grammar BSO(A)S Bulletin of the School of Oriental (and African) Studies BSR Buddhist Studies Review BUp Bṛhad-Āraṇyaka Upaniṣad C.E. Common Era CP I–V K.R. Norman. Collected Papers, Volumes I–IV (1990–94) CPD A Critical Pāli Dictionary, Copenhagen CUP Cambridge University Press DEDR T. Burrow & M.B. Emeneau, Dravidian Etymological Dictionary (Revised edition, 1984) DPPN G.P. Malalasekera, Dictionary of Pāli Proper Names (1937–38) EV I, II K.R. Norman, Elders’ Verses I (1969), II (1971) GD I, II K.R. Norman, The Group of Discourses I (1984), II (1992) IIJ Indo-Iranian Journal IT Indologica Taurinensia JA Journal Asiatique JBuRS Journal of the Burma Research Society JOI(B) Journal of the Oriental Institute (Baroda) JPTS Journal of the Pali Texts Society JRAS Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society m.c. metri causa MIA Middle Indo-Aryan MRI Minor Readings and Illustrator MW M. Monier-Williams, Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899) OUP Oxford University Press PDhp Patna Dharmapada PE Pillar Edict PED The PTS’s Pali-English Dictionary Pkt Prakrit PTS Pali Text Society RE Rock Edict SBE Sacred Books of the East Skt Sanskrit SOAS School of Oriental and African Studies (London) SWTF Goerg von Simson (ed.), Sanskrit-Wörterbuch der buddhistischen Texte aus den Turfan-Funden (1973–) Überbl O. von Hinüber, Das ältere Mittelindisch im Überblick (1986) WZKSO Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Südasiens Abbreviations of the titles of Pāli texts are those adopted by the CPD. Editions are those of the PTS, unless otherwise stated.! IX Buddhism and the Commentarial Tradition Commentaries were probably needed from the very beginning of Buddhism. We can assume that the earliest form of commentary was simply the explanation of one word by another, and we need not doubt that the Buddha on occasion replaced words by synonyms, to make his teachings more easily understood. We find some sort of evidence of this in the words of the Buddha himself, where he gives, for example, seven different words all meaning “bowl”,1 which he says are “country language” (janapadanirutti). This is presumably something which he found from experience, i.e. as he moved from one place to another, he found that the word used for a particular object in one area was quite different from that used in another area for one and the same thing. Anyone who has ever looked at Sir George Grierson’s Bihar Peasant Life,2 will know exactly the problems which the Buddha faced. Grierson moved around the area for which he had responsibility as a civil servant, recording the wide range of different names which the villagers of Bihar used for all the items of everyday domestic and village life. The Buddha must have found a situation which was very similar to this 2 ½ millennia ago. The earliest extensive portion of Theravādin commentary material we have is that found in the Vinaya-piṭaka. We know that, at the suggestion of King Seniya Bimbisāra of Magadha,3 the Buddha instituted a fortnightly recitation of the Pātimokkha (following the practice of other sects which recited texts). We are therefore certain that the Pātimokkha existed from the very early days of Buddhism. The Pātimokkha does not have a separate existence in the Theravādin tradition, but is embedded in the Vinaya-piṭaka. If it is the earliest text for which we have direct evidence of recitation, it is not surprising if it was the first text that needed explanation. And so we find a simple type of commentary upon it, whereby words are for the most part explained by synonyms or clarification of terms, e.g. the first word of the first pārājika rule is yo “whoever”, and it is explained: “‘Whoever’ means he who on account of his relations, his social standing, his name, his clan, his morals, his dwelling, his field of activity, an 1 M III 234, 34 foll. 2 Grierson, 1926. 3 See Vin I 101, 18 foll. 149 elder, or a novice, or one of middle standing, this is ‘whoever’”.4 The nature of that commentary is made clear by its name: pada-bhājaniya “analysis of words”. The commentary is so early that, like the Pātimokkha itself, it is embedded in the Vinaya- piṭaka after each of the Pātimokkha rules, and therefore the text and the commentary have been handed down together. The earliest Theravādin commentarial text is one which is actually given separate canonical status. It is the Niddesa, a commentary upon two vaggas and one sutta of the Sutta-nipāta. Here again we find a great deal of explanation by means of synonyms. We also find another characteristic feature of this type of commentary. Whenever a particular word occurs in the text, the same explanation is given verbatim, e.g. whenever there is a reference to kappa “figment”, or a verb based upon the root kapp-, we are told that there are two types of kappa, i.e. taṇhā-kappa and diṭṭhi-kappa, and the identical explanation is given, even if the words recur in successive verses. In the third lecture, I pointed out that this kind of fixed repetition is typical of the oral nature of an early text, giving support, if it were needed, for the assumption that the Niddesa is very old and was composed well before the writing down of the canon. Even the early commentarial passages in the canon itself are not merely lists of synonyms. Commentaries have two functions, although not all commentaries perform both of them all the time: they explain the meaning of the words and they explain the meaning of the phrase or sentence in which the words occur. In the Araṇavibhaṅgasutta “The discourse on the undefiled” of the Majjhima-nikāya,5 the araṇa “undefiled person” is defined in one paragraph by the Buddha. The remainder of the sutta is devoted to explaining the meaning of each sentence of that paragraph. Similarly, the Niddesa is not merely a list of synonyms. It also includes exegetical passages, giving us some idea of what the early commentarial tradition thought was the meaning of the relevant portions of the Sutta-nipāta. It is, however, not a organic structure of exegesis, but a series of disconnected phrases, which serve as explanations of the individual words, not in the particular context of the Sutta-nipāta, but in any setting. The chronicles tell us that, at the time of Aśoka, Mahinda took Buddhism to Sri Lanka. 6 The story, as related in the Dīpavaṃsa, the Samantapāsādikā, and the Mahāvaṃsa, tells how King Tissa met Mahinda, exchanged greetings with him and had a discussion. All three sources agree that the first sermon which Mahinda preached to the king was the Cūḷahatthipadūpamasuttanta “The short 4 Vin III 23, 37 foll. 5 M III 230–37. 6 Dīp 12.9; Mhv 13.21. 150 sermon on the elephant’s footprint”.7 The Mahāvaṃsa8 states that Mahinda preached the true doctrine in two places “in the speech of the island” (dvīsu ṭhānesu dhammaṃ bhāsitvā dīpabhāsāya), implying that in the other places he did not “translate”.9 The Dīpavaṃsa and the Samantapāsādikā make no mention of this “translation”
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